Features

The FRNBv2 realizes all features from the first version on the top side of the PCB. The bottom side is all about further expansion. Most of these chips are not very usable without connecting additional electronics to them. I'll add detailed descriptions of what I did with them to this page.

Top side

3D Gyroscope ITG-3200

The new ITG-3200 digital gyroscope detects rotations and measures their angular velocity. This enables the FR to be used as game controller or to improve navigation capabilities without GPS.

3D Magnetometer HMC5843

A magnetometer senses magnetic fields. It can be used as compass for navigation purposes or to sense fields from other magnetic sources.

Air pressure/temperature sensor: BMP085

A pressure sensor can be used for weather forecast or to measure the height above sea level if the pressure at sea level is known.
If the height is known from other sources (e.g. GPS), the change in ambient pressure can be used to detect weather changes. This may be useful for gliding.

Bottom side

4ch Programmable LED Controller PCA9632

This chip can source or sink current for up to four LEDs with a maximum of 25mA per LED. In addition to simple on/off states it can be programmed to blink or dim individual channels or a group of channels. Since the chip does everything on its own, it will continue to work even if the host cpu suspends. This allows the often requested feature to drain the battery even faster to notify users of incoming SMS or missed phone calls by blinking a LED even if the phone is suspended. A blink frequency down to once every 10 seconds and a widely adjustable duty cycle allows for very short flashes to save battery power.

1kHz – 68MHz Programmable oscillator LTC6904

This is, well, a programmable oscillator from which one frequency output and the output enable pin are available at testpoints. My intention was to use it as 38kHz oscillator to generate the carrier frequency of common infrared remote controls. The output enable can be connected to a GPIO. After implementing a small driver, this should work as a generic remote control solution using lirc.

12 bit Analog to Digital Converter ADS1015

This is similar to the chip which was used on the FRNBv1 to digitize analog gyroscope outputs. It provides only 12 instead of 16 bits of resolution, but this should be enough for most applications. The FRNBv2 does not use it for own purposes, so it is completely under user's control.

Touch Sensor MPR121

The MPR121 from Freescale Semiconductor is a multi channel proximity capacitive touch sensor controller. Up to twelve sensor areas could be connected, but due to space restrictions, only seven channels are accessible at solder pads.
It is not guaranteed that the chip will work as intended, but I think it's worth to test it.
The Datasheet can be found here.

Expansion pads

The supply voltage as well as the I2C bus is routed to testpads at the end of the board. These enable easy further expansion with more I2C devices (e.g. a digital humidity sensor)

Documentation

Pinout

GND: Ground, available from the (big) decoupling capacitor next to the accelerometer

SCL, SDA: Serial clock and data, get it from testpoints at the debug connector

OE: Output enable from the frequency generator. Pull this pin high to enable the CLK output

CLK: Clock output from the frequency generator.

LED controller 0-3: LED current sinks. Connect LEDs in series with current limiting resistors from VCC to these pads.

12-Bit A/D 0-3: Analog to digital converter inputs. They can operate single ended or differencial. The reference voltage is VCC.

Touch electrodes 0-6: Connect these pads to a larger conducting area to use it as touch sensor. The inputs 0-3 can also be used to drive LEDs. Refer to the datasheet for more information.

Top side with the BMP085

Bottom side with PCA9632 and LTC9604. The LED controller works :)

Installation

Hardware installation

The best way to connect the FRNBv2 to your Freerunner is to solder four wires to the VCC, GND, SCL and SDA pads at the top side of the board. SDA and SCL are available at test points next to the debug connector. VCC is accessible at the AUX switch. GND is available from the big decoupling capacitor below the backup battery.

The FRNBv2 can be mounted into the free space below the GPS connector. I would reccomend to apply some adhesive tape to the GPS connector and the metallic cover on the main pcb. It prohibits short circuits which cause damage to the Freerunner or the FRNBv2.

Software installation

It should display a table with all I2C adresses for which a device is connected to your Freerunner:
(TODO: example)

You should find all adresses listed below.

Test Status

The first PCBs arrived and allows to test single features. The progress will be documented here.

Chip

I²C address

Test Result

Notes

ITG3200

0x69

ok

driver usable but still incomplete

HMC5843

0x1E

ok

driver should to degauss sensor to ensure proper operation

BMP085

0x77

ok

PCA9632

0x60

ok

LTC9604

0x17

ok

works with 15pF cap between SCL and SDA (NOR boot fix)

ADS1015

0x40

ok

kernel driver incomplete. Userspace driver incomplete

MPR121

0x5A

ok

works, hackish driver available

Issues

Known HW or SW Issues

LTC9604

The frequency generator LTC9604 consumes about 0.5mA even if the outputs are turned off. This is not a real bug but it would be nice to turn the chip off while unused. A small modification should make it possible to use one output from the LED controller to control the power.

Reading exactly two bytes from the LTC9604 causes the I2C bus to lock up. The stop condition is not sent correctly and the master does not stop generating a clock. The chip works fine when programmed with a MSP430 microcontroller. Therefore either the Linux driver or the Samsung SoC (or both) are causing the bug. I'll try to resolve this, but I'm quite busy with other stuff. If someone wants to help, please contact me.

The chip works with the NOR-Boot fix described below.

ITG3200

Use *50V* 2.2nF capacitor for C5. fixed.

General

NOR-Boot does not work if the FRNBv2 is connected. If you need the NOR boot only as emergency recovery, hold your finger onto the I2C-SCL pad (pay attention to ESD!) or connect the debug board cable (no need to connect the real board, the cable is enough) to "fix" the issue.

Of course, this issue can be fixed permanently with an additional capacitor ;-) Solder a 15pF cap between SDA and SCL. A 0402 sized capacitor fits easily onto the test points at the edge of the board.

Software

Kernel drivers

This gitorious page lists all currently available drivers for the FRNBv2. The kernel drivers for the BMP085 and the HMC5843 are already upstream and will be shipped with kernel 2.6.36. All other drivers need some cleanup and more documentation to be accepted. I will try to get this done. If you're bored and want to help, please do so!

Userspace software

The sensor-monitor is an excellent application to test the different sensors. Alternatively cat and echo can be used to communicate with them. Right now the interfaces to userspace lack some documentation. Either look at the source code or ask me if you are in trouble.

Views

Personal tools

The second version of the Freerunner Navigation Board includes lots of new stuff to play with, while still providing the same feature set as the first version.

Freerunner Navigation Board v2

Features

The FRNBv2 realizes all features from the first version on the top side of the PCB. The bottom side is all about further expansion. Most of these chips are not very usable without connecting additional electronics to them. I'll add detailed descriptions of what I did with them to this page.

Top side

3D Gyroscope ITG-3200

The new ITG-3200 digital gyroscope detects rotations and measures their angular velocity. This enables the FR to be used as game controller or to improve navigation capabilities without GPS.

3D Magnetometer HMC5843

A magnetometer senses magnetic fields. It can be used as compass for navigation purposes or to sense fields from other magnetic sources.

Air pressure/temperature sensor: BMP085

A pressure sensor can be used for weather forecast or to measure the height above sea level if the pressure at sea level is known.
If the height is known from other sources (e.g. GPS), the change in ambient pressure can be used to detect weather changes. This may be useful for gliding.

Bottom side

4ch Programmable LED Controller PCA9632

This chip can source or sink current for up to four LEDs with a maximum of 25mA per LED. In addition to simple on/off states it can be programmed to blink or dim individual channels or a group of channels. Since the chip does everything on its own, it will continue to work even if the host cpu suspends. This allows the often requested feature to drain the battery even faster to notify users of incoming SMS or missed phone calls by blinking a LED even if the phone is suspended. A blink frequency down to once every 10 seconds and a widely adjustable duty cycle allows for very short flashes to save battery power.

1kHz – 68MHz Programmable oscillator LTC6904

This is, well, a programmable oscillator from which one frequency output and the output enable pin are available at testpoints. My intention was to use it as 38kHz oscillator to generate the carrier frequency of common infrared remote controls. The output enable can be connected to a GPIO. After implementing a small driver, this should work as a generic remote control solution using lirc.

12 bit Analog to Digital Converter ADS1015

This is similar to the chip which was used on the FRNBv1 to digitize analog gyroscope outputs. It provides only 12 instead of 16 bits of resolution, but this should be enough for most applications. The FRNBv2 does not use it for own purposes, so it is completely under user's control.

Touch Sensor MPR121

The MPR121 from Freescale Semiconductor is a multi channel proximity capacitive touch sensor controller. Up to twelve sensor areas could be connected, but due to space restrictions, only seven channels are accessible at solder pads.
It is not guaranteed that the chip will work as intended, but I think it's worth to test it.
The Datasheet can be found here.

Expansion pads

The supply voltage as well as the I2C bus is routed to testpads at the end of the board. These enable easy further expansion with more I2C devices (e.g. a digital humidity sensor)

Documentation

Pinout

GND: Ground, available from the (big) decoupling capacitor next to the accelerometer

SCL, SDA: Serial clock and data, get it from testpoints at the debug connector

OE: Output enable from the frequency generator. Pull this pin high to enable the CLK output

CLK: Clock output from the frequency generator.

LED controller 0-3: LED current sinks. Connect LEDs in series with current limiting resistors from VCC to these pads.

12-Bit A/D 0-3: Analog to digital converter inputs. They can operate single ended or differencial. The reference voltage is VCC.

Touch electrodes 0-6: Connect these pads to a larger conducting area to use it as touch sensor. The inputs 0-3 can also be used to drive LEDs. Refer to the datasheet for more information.

Top side with the BMP085

Bottom side with PCA9632 and LTC9604. The LED controller works :)

Installation

Hardware installation

The best way to connect the FRNBv2 to your Freerunner is to solder four wires to the VCC, GND, SCL and SDA pads at the top side of the board. SDA and SCL are available at test points next to the debug connector. VCC is accessible at the AUX switch. GND is available from the big decoupling capacitor below the backup battery.

The FRNBv2 can be mounted into the free space below the GPS connector. I would reccomend to apply some adhesive tape to the GPS connector and the metallic cover on the main pcb. It prohibits short circuits which cause damage to the Freerunner or the FRNBv2.

Software installation

It should display a table with all I2C adresses for which a device is connected to your Freerunner:
(TODO: example)

You should find all adresses listed below.

Test Status

The first PCBs arrived and allows to test single features. The progress will be documented here.

Chip

I²C address

Test Result

Notes

ITG3200

0x69

ok

driver usable but still incomplete

HMC5843

0x1E

ok

driver should to degauss sensor to ensure proper operation

BMP085

0x77

ok

PCA9632

0x60

ok

LTC9604

0x17

ok

works with 15pF cap between SCL and SDA (NOR boot fix)

ADS1015

0x40

ok

kernel driver incomplete. Userspace driver incomplete

MPR121

0x5A

ok

works, hackish driver available

Issues

Known HW or SW Issues

LTC9604

The frequency generator LTC9604 consumes about 0.5mA even if the outputs are turned off. This is not a real bug but it would be nice to turn the chip off while unused. A small modification should make it possible to use one output from the LED controller to control the power.

Reading exactly two bytes from the LTC9604 causes the I2C bus to lock up. The stop condition is not sent correctly and the master does not stop generating a clock. The chip works fine when programmed with a MSP430 microcontroller. Therefore either the Linux driver or the Samsung SoC (or both) are causing the bug. I'll try to resolve this, but I'm quite busy with other stuff. If someone wants to help, please contact me.

The chip works with the NOR-Boot fix described below.

ITG3200

Use *50V* 2.2nF capacitor for C5. fixed.

General

NOR-Boot does not work if the FRNBv2 is connected. If you need the NOR boot only as emergency recovery, hold your finger onto the I2C-SCL pad (pay attention to ESD!) or connect the debug board cable (no need to connect the real board, the cable is enough) to "fix" the issue.

Of course, this issue can be fixed permanently with an additional capacitor ;-) Solder a 15pF cap between SDA and SCL. A 0402 sized capacitor fits easily onto the test points at the edge of the board.

Software

Kernel drivers

This gitorious page lists all currently available drivers for the FRNBv2. The kernel drivers for the BMP085 and the HMC5843 are already upstream and will be shipped with kernel 2.6.36. All other drivers need some cleanup and more documentation to be accepted. I will try to get this done. If you're bored and want to help, please do so!

Userspace software

The sensor-monitor is an excellent application to test the different sensors. Alternatively cat and echo can be used to communicate with them. Right now the interfaces to userspace lack some documentation. Either look at the source code or ask me if you are in trouble.